Latitude III

Abstract

I believe that environmental imprints—sociocultural upbringing, attitudes, beliefs, and practices—are primary shapers of the ethnic characteristics that we call race. In acknowledging that definitive characteristics of the black (or white) dancing body reside in geographies beyond biology, the third part of this work is devoted to the “continent” of soul and spirit.

I went up to Harlem and saw the abandon and freedom and spontaneity of spirit of these people. It was so different from the stereotyped Fascist spirit of Europe. The stirring imagination of the Negro and his innate understanding of the fundamental values have left deep, permanent impressions on the arts.

—Eugene Von Grona (ca. 1937)¹

The body is spirit, too. … I think that the business or the mission of art is dis-illusionment. To make us see the double nature of reality—that it is both material and spirit.

-Li-Young Lee²